Free Web NovelChapter 358: Only a Pure Maiden
"Stop them!"
I kicked a human soldier square in the solar plexus as he tried to squeeze between the shield-bearing orcs. The human stumbled backward, spitting blood-flecked saliva, and in that gap I twisted my body slightly to the side.
Whoooosh!
A wind arrow that grazed past my neck pierced the human soldier’s heart. The soldier toppled forward, eyes bloodshot.
"Teams of four! Intercept every human that slips between the shieldbearers! Hold the gaps!"
Two shieldbearers held their shields firm up front while the other two bashed any soldiers trying to force their way through with swords and hammers.
Then, after a set interval, the Cookie Elves who’d been lurking in their holes, waiting for enemies to pass by, unleashed a volley of wind arrows in unison.
Thwip-thwip!
Wind arrows with devastating penetrating power punched through the human soldiers. Another direct hit. They could only fire about once a minute, pouring all their mana into maximizing penetration, but the steadily growing pile of corpses kept the subjugation force from advancing easily.
"Tch...!"
The knight commander, who appeared to be the enemy’s leader, twisted her face into a snarl and leaped off her horse. A wise choice. A dungeon was no place for horseback combat.
"You bastards!"
With a thunderous war cry, the knight commander leveled her lance and charged straight ahead. The tip of her lance was aimed, of all places, at me.
Taking down the strongest monster first was the most basic of basics when fighting most monsters. The knight commander had instinctively realized I was the most powerful one here.
"Just what I wanted!"
I quickly rubbed my fingers together to activate my tattoos. Strength, endurance, patience all enhanced, blood flow accelerated, I gripped the tomahawk’s handle with both hands.
"Hey! You think you’re that good in a fight?!"
A single-point thrust, driven by her own two feet pounding the dirt. I aimed the tomahawk at the unwavering tip of her lance.
If I deflected even slightly wrong, I’d die. And my death would mean the collapse of the entire Legion.
If I died here, I’d never see the daughters my women would bear. I swung the tomahawk as if detonating every muscle in my body.
"UOOOOH!!"
Claaang.
A sharp, clear sound rang out. I grinned at the clash of steel on steel; the knight commander’s expression hardened.
"What’s your name?"
"...Levis Ann. Commander of the Goddess Church’s Holy Knights."
"What a name.... Heh heh, nice. I’m the Legion Commander of the Legion of Wrath. Master of this dungeon."
"I gave you my name. Shouldn’t you give yours in return?"
"Sorry, but the only people who get to hear my name are the women who come to my bed."
Levis’s expression froze at the blatant innuendo. Deep contempt filled her narrowed eyes, but I just grinned and leveled my tomahawk.
"You’re strong. On par with me, maybe stronger."
The strong can gauge each other’s caliber from a single exchange. Just one clash told Levis and me exactly where the other stood.
’I can tell this much even without the system’s help.’
Five-star. Nearly on Luna’s level. But she didn’t seem to have much actual combat experience.
"From what I can see, you rely on raw stats and divine power to steamroll your enemies... but that won’t work on me!"
"We’ll see."
A faint glow of divine power began swirling around the tip of Levis’s lance. Far weaker than Luna’s, but a hit would still do real damage.
’Good thing I stepped up to handle this myself.’ frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
If I’d sent the orcs forward, their shields and necks alike would’ve been skewered; her strikes were that sharp. Even the tomahawk, the best-quality weapon I’d obtained from Ras Vegas, had its edge slightly chipped from that single exchange.
But I could hold. If I didn’t hold, the entrance would be breached, threatening the dungeon’s core, and putting the entire Legion in grave danger.
"You never know until you try. That’s right... you won’t know if my dick’s long or your hole’s deep until you actually try it out."
"What a vulgar monster."
"If that bothers you, try killing me."
"That’s exactly what I intend. If you’re really the dungeon master, then killing you ends this. ...Before that, one question."
Levis pointed her lance at the dungeon entrance behind me.
"The prisoners you took. Are they still alive?"
"...."
The soldiers behind Levis, trembling as they gripped their swords, had their ears perked and their eyes locked on me. They were surely people whose families or relatives had been taken prisoner.
Should I say they were dead, or alive?
’Provoking the enemy and clouding their judgment would be best.’
I smirked and shoved my thumb between my index and middle fingers.
"Oh, they’re alive. Oh yes, they’re eating very well. Our orcs and harpies have been enjoying their generous hospitality, morning and night... Heh heh."
"Creatures that truly should not exist."
Commander Levis gripped her lance shaft with a face twisted like a vengeful spirit. The soldiers standing behind her glared at our entire force with bloodshot eyes.
’Think whatever you want.’
There was no need to tell the truth. A few well-placed innuendos and sweet lies were enough to rattle and enrage the enemy like that.
"So what? It’s better than killing them. Heh heh, and they were quite good at it too. The way they cried and begged, ’Please, just eat me up nicely...’ because they were so afraid of death. Still can’t forget that sight. Heh heh."
I snickered and flicked a hand near my lower half. The provocation was a success.
"You filthy monster scum!!"
The problem was, the provocation worked a little too well, sending the enemy’s morale through the roof.
"No mercy! In the name of the Goddess, subjugate these vile fiends!"
"""In the name of the Goddess!!!"""
The subjugation force, which had been cautiously probing, surged toward us in an instant. I leaped ahead of the shields and shouted to the orcs.
"Fall back as planned!"
The moment my order dropped, the orcs released the shields they’d been gripping tight and dashed for the dungeon entrance. I took one more step forward and swung the tomahawk toward the oncoming enemy.
Whoooosh!!
Levis jerked her head back and thrust her lance upward. As the blade targeted my handle, I spun the axe to dodge the lance’s trajectory.
"What are you scheming?!"
"What kind of idiot gives away their strategy to the enemy on the battlefield?! Wanna know? Come to my bed! I’ll teach you how I do it, start to finish!"
"You filthy monster!"
Levis’s face reddened as she retracted her lance and thrust again. This time she aimed for the sole of my foot.
"Too slow!"
I’d already jumped back a step. In the meantime, the orcs who’d been standing near the entrance had already disappeared inside the dungeon.
Thwip-thwip!
Covering fire from the Cookie Elves continued. They’d lowered the lethality for rapid fire, so some shots were blocked by the subjugation force’s armor, but it was enough to keep them from interfering with the orcs’ retreat.
"You can run, but you’re running into the dungeon!"
"Heh heh, sorry, but the running’s over!"
"What?!"
"Ta-da!"
I stood at the dungeon entrance and pointed to the orcs who’d moved in behind me. They’d taken up positions across the corridor, and behind them, Cookie Elves draped in white robes had their bows aimed straight ahead.
"Wh-what is this...?!"
"Fell back 20 meters!"
I retrieved the tomahawk and stepped inside the dungeon. The orc-elf combined unit abandoned the entrance bunker and boldly chose to blockade the corridor instead.
"Why would we fight all of you at once?! Hahaha!"
Beyond the defensive line we’d formed was a three-way junction where the corridor turned right from the entrance. We’d plugged that junction and dug in.
"Looks like you brought, oh, about five or six hundred people."
I gestured at the corridor’s width and sneered at Levis.
"Think you can even fit 40 in here at once? Hold hands and line up single file."
The dungeon was far too narrow for 600 soldiers to pour in all at once.
"I’ll kill you one by one, nice and orderly. Oh, this is what you call a ’bottleneck.’"
No matter how many you have, what good are numbers if they can’t all get in?
***
At the same time battles raged at Ras Vegas and Ras Village.
Meri maintained a facade of composure as she carefully followed Baroness Virgo.
"I once told you, didn’t I? That I personally executed our family’s butler."
"Yes. You said it was because he’d been embezzling the family’s funds...."
"That was the official reason. Well, he did do that too, but the real reason was that he discovered this secret."
Creeeeak.
The Baroness opened the basement door. A musty smell of mold assaulted their noses, but the Baroness lit a lamp with practiced hands and banished the darkness.
"Urp."
Meri wrinkled her nose at the pile of corpses filling the room. All of them were shriveled and desiccated, as though drained of every drop of life; not even maggots infested them.
"...My grandmother, my mother, and my half-sister. They all died here. Because of that."
"...A holy sword?"
Meri felt a chill at the pale pink sword resting in the center of the stone chamber. Pink was supposed to be a warm, vibrant color, yet this pink felt like the color of a poisonous mushroom, luring people in.
"Only a pure maiden can grasp that holy sword. That’s right. Only a woman who has never been touched by a man can become the sword’s master."
"W-wait a moment. Then, Baroness, the people here are all...?"
"They died for nothing. It was something I discovered myself. Because the masters of the Holy Sword Virgo had always been women, everyone assumed any woman would do."
The Baroness smiled bitterly and ran her hand along the glass case housing the holy sword.
"My late father tried to make me the sword’s master too. He believed that with the holy sword, our family could naturally rise again. So I asked for just one day."
"...."
Meri felt as though her insides were burning black. The Baroness continued, stroking the glass case.
"I want nothing more than to erase our family’s tainted blood right this instant... but the baronial name must endure. The thousand-year legacy of the Barony of Virgo must be passed on to future generations, and beyond that, we need to rise to at least a county."
A sinister gleam began to settle in the Baroness’s eyes.
"Miss Meri, I beg you to become a member of our house. Not as a retainer. As my sister, or as my heir."
"That’s...."
"Would you please become the sword’s master?" fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
"...Was this the reason you never laid a hand on me?"
".....Heh."
The Baroness smiled sheepishly and lowered her head. Meri had thought she was the one taking advantage of the Baroness and her clumsy same-sex affections, but it turned out the Baroness had been cultivating Meri for her own purposes all along.
"What would you have done if I refused to become the sword’s master?"
"Refused to become... the sword’s master? Why would you?!"
The Baroness let out something close to a shriek and rushed at Meri, grabbing her by the collar.
"Why would you refuse to be the sword’s master?!"
"Well, because I’ve already promised my virginity to someone."
Meri pushed the Baroness away with a cold voice. The Baroness stumbled back, her face full of betrayal.
"Y-you deceived me! I loved you!"
"Are you sure it wasn’t Meri the Holy Sword’s Hero you loved?"
At Meri’s scathing words, the Baroness’s face contorted like a vengeful spirit.
"Y-you can’t do this! Do you know how much I overlooked for your sake?! I let in a trading company of unknown origin, I turned a blind eye to public indecency! How could you do this to me?!"
"I’m sorry it turned out this way. I’m not exactly the nicest person. Heh heh, this is what’s called being a ’femme fatale.’ Oh, that’s something he taught me. Well... let’s just call it a honey trap."
".....Meri! If you won’t grant my request, I’ll have no choice but to shut your mouth by force!"
Now that Meri had shown her true colors, the Baroness did the same.
"You know about the holy sword now. You’ve betrayed my trust! The moment we go upstairs, I’m calling the knights!"
"To have me executed for insulting a noble? Sorry, but I’m a mage."
"But I am a noble! You can’t kill a noble and get away with..."
The Baroness froze.
A mass of slime squirmed out from under Meri’s skirt, and goosebumps erupted across the Baroness’s skin. Distinctly different from the familiar Meri had been keeping as a pet, it was a human-shaped slime that bore an uncanny resemblance to Meri herself.
"Let me introduce you. This is my mom. Her name is... ’Lime.’"
"Hello, human."
"You... you’re insane...!"
The Baroness fell on her backside with a scream.
"You think you can threaten me with that?! It won’t work! The whole world knows it was just the two of us here! If you imprison or kill me, you’ll be the first suspect!"
"No. There won’t be any suspicion."
Meri clapped her hands. Lime’s body began to squirm, and soon she shifted into a form the Baroness knew all too well.
"The head maid...!"
"My mother can change her appearance to anyone she’s consumed."
"Baroness Virgo... bon appe..."
Crash!
The Baroness smashed the glass case. Shards embedded themselves in her porcelain hands and blood streamed freely, but the Baroness didn’t care.
"You filthy dark mage! You think I’ll die here?! If I’m going to be devoured by the likes of you, then..."
She seized it.
Baroness Virgo grabbed the holy sword’s hilt and screamed.
"I, Virginia, will become the master of the holy sword!"
Hummm...
A pink light began to glow softly from the holy sword.
